Coronary artery disease (CAD) occurs when the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle become hardened and narrowed due to atherosclerosis. The arteries harden and become narrow due to the buildup of plaque on the inner walls or lining of the arteries. Blood flow to the heart is reduced as plaque narrows the coronary arteries. This decreases the oxygen supply to the heart muscle. CAD is the most common type of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the U.S. in both men and women.
An atherosclerotic plaque is the site of an inflammatory reaction within the wall of an artery and is made up of a core containing lipid and inflammatory cells surrounded by a connective tissue capsule. A myocardial infarction (MI), or heart attack, occurs when atherosclerotic plaque within a coronary artery ruptures and leads to the clotting of blood (thrombosis) within the artery by exposing the highly thrombogenic lipid core of the plaque to the blood. The complete or nearly complete obstruction to coronary blood flow can damage a substantial area of heart tissue and cause sudden death, usually due to an abnormal heart rhythm that prevents effective pumping.
Besides causing an MI, CAD can also produce lesser degrees of cardiac ischemia due to the narrowing of a coronary artery lumen by atherosclerotic plaque. When blood flow and oxygen supply to the heart is reduced, patients often experience chest pain or discomfort, referred to as angina pectoris. Angina pectoris serves as a useful warning of insufficient myocardial perfusion which can lead to the more serious situation such as a heart attack or cardiac arrhythmia. Patients who experience anginal episodes are commonly treated either with medication or by surgical revascularization. It has also been found, however, that patients who experience anginal episodes prior to a heart attack often have a lower mortality rate than heart attack patients who do not experience such episodes. It is theorized that this phenomenon may be due to ischemic preconditioning of the heart by the anginal episodes which thereby renders the myocardial tissue less likely to become infarcted if blood supply is sharply reduced by a subsequent coronary thrombus.